Shabbat
Shalom!
Becoming a Bat Mitzvah means a lot of things – but
most of all, it means that on some level you’ve grown up.
I must say, I do feel older. I feel like I’ve grown up a lot this
year. For one thing, we got Bazzle, our white
and fluffy Bichon, a little more than a year ago. For those who have never met him, I’ll just
say, he’s really cute!
Over the course of this year, I’ve became a real
caregiver for him. I love to walk him
and he loves to play with me – he runs around the family room table and I try
to catch him. We’re teaching him how to
fetch. Right now, he’s still at the
“grab it and run” phase.
Bazzle’s also gotten sick at times and we’ve had to
care for him. I have lots of stuffed
animals – but Bazzle was a real step up from Winnie the Pooh, and he’s taught
me a lot about responsibility. And when mom asks one of us to walk him, I’m
usually the first one to say yes.
I must admit, from early childhood, I’ve grown up
pretty fast. My parents tell me that I walked really early – at nine months,
which meant I was quite a handful. And
before that, I figured out how to crawl out of my crib. I cut my first tooth at three months and had
a mouthful of teeth before one.
So now I’m becoming a Bat Mitzvah at 12, which is
younger than some girls and all boys - and from looking at my portion, it led
me to wonder if kids are growing up too fast these days.
In my portion of Beraysheet, Adam and Eve really grow
up fast. They were born as adults, after
all – but even so they really did some childish things. They were fooled into eating the forbidden
fruit – and by the way, the way to get kids to do something is tell them NOT to
do it. That topic came up a few weeks
ago in a class when we were talking about how we shouldn’t look directly at the
eclipse. Fortunately, everyone in my
class is mature enough not to have ignored that advice.
The mistake that Adam and Eve made was not just that
they disobeyed God’s command, but that they did not take responsibility for
their actions. And because of that, they were sent out of the garden. Then they really did have to grow up fast.
But I don’t think they had to grow as quickly as kids
to today. I asked my mom about it and
she said, having cell phones has made it much easier for kids to get
information very quickly. I agree, and
also, being able to text friends all the time increases the chances of
miscommunication. For instance, it’s
hard to convey in a text that you are being sarcastic or just trying to be
funny. Someone might say in a text, “Oh
I hate you so much” as a joke but the other person might take it
seriously. This can cause problems – and
it’s problems like these that force you to grow up really fast. It’s happened to me a few times. But fortunately, things have worked out in
the end.
For my bat mitzvah project, I have chosen to work with
ABILIS. Abilis is a non-profit
organization that provides assistance to adults and children with developmental
disabilities. I am collecting puzzles,
toys, books and other items for their birth to 3 program for disadvantaged
families. As part of my hands on
experience, I am volunteering in a music class for young adults. In class I help the teacher keep the class
motivated and happy. We play
instruments, sing songs and dance. This
experience has taught me that even though we are different, we can still be
friends and learn from one another.
So now that I am a Bat Mitzvah, I know that growing up
is nothing to be afraid of, even if it happens very quickly. But the key to it all is to take
responsibility for what we do. That’s
what Bar or Bat Mitzvah means. While the
word bar or bat literally means son or daughter, it really means “responsible for.” Traditionally over the centuries, at this
occasion parents would say a special blessing, thanking God for releasing them
from responsibility for their child.
Back in those days, kids really had to grow up fast. In the end, I don’t think it’s too fast or
too slow. I think the pace of growing up for me… is just right!
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